German Navy is battling tech trouble with auxiliary ships with fuel tanks which can supply fuels during underway replenishment at sea.

According to Christian Thiels citing the Kieler Nachrichten, the German Navy is suffering from a shortage of special tankers to provide underway replenishment for its ships at sea.

The Germany Navy was deprived of the fleet of tankers due to obsolescence and technical problems of the remaining two Type 704A Rhön-class of replenishment oilers. Now the fleet has two ships: Spessart (A1442) and Rhön (A1443) built at the Kröger shipyard in Schacht-Audorf in 1974 and 1975.

Both ships are now being repaired in connection with the tech trouble of the MaK 12M551AK power diesel engines. Despite extensive investigations of the engine, the exact cause of the damage remains unclear. As a first step, the Navy is repairing the diesel engine on the “Spessart” in Kiel. After that, the causes of the tech trouble are searched for and the “Rhön” in Wilhelmshaven repaired.

The Type 704A Rhön-class tankers are a class of replenishment oilers used by the German Navy to provide underway replenishment for its ships at sea. In 2018 it was announced by the German Navy that the ships are planned to be replaced in 2025.‏